north & south

[David Robertson]

LaXiyEm, 'Klis',

These Lushootseed words are the cognates, if not the sources, of the CJ
terms mentioned.  What's interesting is the lack of 's-' at the beginning,
as you mention, and the 'gw' instead of 'w'.

The latter is a regular
Lushootseed correspondence for Ancient (Proto-, that is) Salish 'w'.  The
former is not a major difference in the meaning of the word; it's just the
Salish ~ "Noun" prefix 's-' -- But it's extremely unlikely that this s was
put onto the word by say white or nonSalish CJ speakers.  Rather it looks
like an indication that the words came from another Salishan language.

Probably that language was located farther north than Lushootseed.  I say
this because I don't find any similar words in Upper Chehalis (down there
neighboring Old Chinook), and I assume that the other quite similar
Salishan languages in the "Tsamosan" group (Quinault, Lower Chehalis,
Cowlitz) also lacked matching terms.

BTW, Lushootseed is Puget Sound Salish.

Anyhow, I'd roughly peg the source of these two CJ terms ("north" and
"south") as being one *or more* of the Salish tribes in the vicinity of
modern Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia.  I reckon that was the
most vigorous coastal trading area at the time of Chinook Jargon's zenith.
And the terms could be very similar in several of the Salishan languages
of that area, reinforcing their usefulness in the CJ of that place.

I don't see any words for "north" or "south" in Father LeJeune's "Chinook
Rudiments", my favorite reference at the moment.  But I wonder what terms
would have been used around Kamloops.  I see many Salishan words in the CJ
of that region, many of them being evidently Coast Salish, e.g. "stolo"
for "river", "lahal" for "gambling with beaver teeth", and "stiwilh" for
"to pray".  Also, though, I do see "nort" used in the _Kamlups Wawa_
newspaper, if only in the place name "Nort Bind" (North Bend).

Sorry, this is long!

Cheers,
Dave


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On Mon, 8 Feb 1999, Christopher Schindler wrote:

> KLAHOWYA KLAKSTA KONAWAY!
>
> The recent mention of the CJ words for north & south, including those in
> Duane Pasco's dictionary - stopilo=north, stehwa=south - got me running to
> my Lushootseed dictionary (Dawn Bates, Thom Hess & Vi Hilbert, 1994).  There
> I found s.tubElE (accent on u, E=shwah) glossed as "northwest wind" and
> tEgwaaq'w (note no s., w's should be superscribed, accent on first a) for
> "south wind".  Besides wondering about these words in CJ, I also noted
> Duane's word for river, "stalo", which made me think of Lushootseed,
> "s.tulEkw" (accent on u, w superscribed) for river (seen also in
> Stillaguamish, lit. people of the river).
> Just thought this might be of interest for the discussion.
>
> Chris Schindler
>